Easy-Peasy Ham and Cheese-y (or Meatball) Biscuit Pockets

Since I wanted to make a football-shaped food of some kind for her Superbowl-themed Muffin Tin Meal, and I had a tube (or two!) of Pillsbury refrigerated biscuits sitting in the fridge (from months ago!) I decided on biscuits. I had toyed with making a football-shaped biscuit and cutting it open and using it for a sandwich, but I love warm and gooey ham and cheese, so I decided to try and bake them inside. I also decided to try meatball and tomato sauce biscuits, but the meatballs were frozen, so I didn't get to cook them at the same time.

Easy-Peasy Ham and Cheese-y Biscuit Pockets

Ingredients:
Refrigerated Biscuit Dough
Sliced Ham (thin works best)
Shredded Cheese

Directions:
Step 1: Preheat oven to 350 F. Separate refrigerated biscuits from the tube. Slice each one in half lengthwise.

Step 2: Use rolling pin or hand to flatten both halves. Flour on surface below and rolling pin/hands is optional but recommended. Especially as they start warming to room temperature.

Step 3: You can do larger round biscuit pockets, or smaller turnovers. If doing round biscuits, choose smaller half (in circumference) of biscuit and add ham and cheese toppings, as desired. More is better than less, since the insides shrink when cooked (and the dough expands.) For turnovers, put toppings on half of the circle, leaving room around the edges.

Step 4: Fold over turnover tops, or place larger biscuit circle on top of smaller one with toppings. Stretch to fit and press down around edges to seal.
Using a fork, knife handle or a food-pocket maker like Pampered Chef's Cut N Seal helps seal the edges so they don't separate while baking. But not required.

Step 5: Place on parchment paper-covered or lightly greased baking sheet. Bake for 13-17 minutes.

YUM!

For the meatball ones, I used 2 frozen Trader Joe's pre-cooked mini-meatballs (you'd want them already thawed, or else let them thaw once inside the dough, but it might all get too moist sitting around like that!) A large spoonful of spaghetti sauce (a little under the meatballs, and the rest on top.) And since I didn't have any mozzarella, I cut up a string cheese stick and put some in. [Although when putting away the tub of sauce, I found a brick of mozzarella. Argh.]
I'd recommend cutting the meatballs in half, so there's not such a big pocket of dead space inside the pocket after the contents shrink, and dough expands, during cooking. And shredded cheese would definitely be better. But these tasted good warm, room temperature and slightly chilled. Yummmm!
The meatball ones also worked better as rounds, rather than turnovers. There was too much plain dough in the corners with the turnovers, since the meatballs were all the way in the middle.

 I used the sauce spoon to paint football lines on the ham and cheese pocket I had shaped into a football.

I started making these because Z said she had to use the potty, and then asked for a sandwich, after we had been laying in bed for half an hour. So I had a little time to kill. Little Z finished her midnight snack but didn't want to go back to bed yet. She wanted to help!

She also "helped" (ie: ate) grate the cheese.

She enjoyed adding toppings, and helped press the edges down. And then wanted to eat one right now. Since I hadn't planned on cooking them until the next morning, she had to wait. She tried to eat one raw, but either didn't like it, or she actually listened when I told her not to. *shock and awe*

While I had just planned on banging these out on my own, they ended up being a great cooking activity for her too. She was able to:

• Roll the dough (mostly. It tended to stick to the rolling pin. But she did a great job problem-solving how to get it off and flat again!) [Putting flour on the mat, rolling pin, and both sides of the dough helped with this.] 
• Grate the cheese (kinda. She did it, but she wasn't pressing very hard at all, so it took f-o-r-e-v-e-r.) 
• Tear the ham. 
• Add fillings. 
• And seal pocket edges. 

A great recipe for your kids to do on their own! (After you cut the biscuits in half.)

Muffin Tin Monday - (Food) Stealers vs. (Tummy) Packers

Since I had already done and posted another Muffin Tin Meal this week (upon request of The Princess,) I had toyed with the idea of skipping it this weekend. But then I had the brainstorm of doing a Superbowl-themed one, and decided to give it a (weak) shot! I mean, how perfect, to do a Superbowl-themed meal on Superbowl Sunday!
Since my plans would require a little cooking, and I knew we probably wouldn't have time to prep and eat the pockets Sunday morning, before leaving for the Superbowl party, I did some prep Saturday night. It's not like she was going to sleep any time soon! Sheesh.

"Popcorn" (Trader Joe's corn puffs,) Ranch, "Astroturf" (green beans,) "Football Field" (Greek yogurt with frosting,)

Peanuts, "Football" (Ham and cheese biscuit,) "Rival Teams" (blackberries and Raspberries)

Steelers colors are yellow, black and white. Packers colors are yellow, dark green and white. So easy to tell apart!
I chose the yellow spoon randomly to match the team colors. [I actually made the whole tin up, served it to her, tried to take pictures of her eating it, got yelled at to stop taking "pichurs ah my byoofuh nunch!" and then came and looked up the team colors. Teehee.]
She chose the Reynold's Staybrite PolkaDot muffin liners, and one Dollar Tree Valentines liner.

I was trying to think up Football-y things, which is tough, since I couldn't give a fig about Football, and know very little about it. Beer. Snacks. Hotdogs? Helmets. Shoulderpads. Football. Field. Tackling.

Popcorn and Peanuts: I chose easy snacks. I don't know for sure that they sell these at games, but they do for Baseball. I opted to use some Trader Joe's cheese corn puffs instead of popping some corn, since she loves these. I fished the peanuts out of a Planter's Mixed Nuts tub.

Astroturf (and Dip): I had a hard time deciding on a veggie. My instincts were telling me that carrots felt right for this theme, but she hasn't been eating her carrots lately, and it's pointless to include a veggie if she's not going to eat it! I decided to just go with green beans and not worry about the theme. I had toyed with the idea of laying them out somehow and piping on a football field grid, but Ugh. What a pain. So I snapped them in half to make them fit... and saw that they looked like grass. Sweet! I used a plastic wedge bento container (probably from Daiso) for the Ranch dip. Superbowl parties have lots of dips! [Also Packers colors]

Rival Teams: We just got some raspberries and blackberries at Costco, and she loves them, so I wanted to incorporate them somehow. I initially had thought to lay them out in a skirmish pattern with a peanut "football," but forgot decided not to. I had them each taking up half of the muffin liner, but they shifted. Looks like the blackberries are winning! [Blackberries are Steelers colors!]

Football Field: I had toyed with using food coloring to make the yogurt green, then using white icing to make the lines, but I don't have any white icing. I do have green icing, already in a convenient little tube, so decided to just leave it. A negative image, if you will. As you can see, my piping skills are crap could be better. The yogurt is in a square silicone cup, but it fit in the muffin pan and rounded itself out. Ah well. [Also Packers colors]

Football: I made ham and cheese biscuit pockets Saturday night and left them uncooked in the fridge. Baked them up first thing Sunday morning. Yummm! Also, please enjoy the irony of using ham in the "ol' pigskin."

She was super excited about getting to eat her biscuit "sandwich." She tried to eat one raw when we made them the night before. She dug right in to the yogurt and loved having frosting on top instead of honey. She ate the middle out of half of the football pocket (and accidentally dropped the 'crust') and ate some yogurt, but little else. Not going to be a big eating day today I guess. I had planned on giving her (root)beer to drink, but forgot decided she'd probably get enough soda at the Superbowl party later.

Muffin Tin Meals - Eatin' With The Queen of Hearts!

We slept in on Thursday, so I decided we'd have another a lazy day. She sat on the potty 3 times, earning 3 potty candies, and had no appetite for breakfast. [She had about a month where she refused to even sit on the potty, so we went back to giving candy for every attempt. She's wicked smart, so she figured this out, and asks to sit on the potty every time she wants candy now. But at least she's asking to use it! And we're having quite a lot of success! We've gone to Little Gym twice now in underpants!] When I asked her what she wanted to do for lunch, she replied, "I want a beautiful lunch!" *sigh*

I figured I'd just slap some food together in a muffin tin, since I wasn't having any brainstorms, and I hadn't prepared anything in advance. But then I was thinking a hearts theme would be easy, for Valentines. Once I had settled on that, I remembered that there's a Valentines theme week coming up. Hmm... But thinking of hearts had got Juice Newton's "Playing With the Queen of Hearts" song stuck in my head. Aha!

Queen of Hearts

PBH sandwich, Box with peanuts and chocolate chips, Yogurt, Grapes
Cookie, Ranch dip, Green Beans, Strawberries

So instead of all hearts, I used some playing card symbol picks I'd found at an Asian grocery, and my small crown cutter.

[This post contains affiliate links.] 

Crown of Hearts: My original plan had been to do a large crown, using 2 slices of bread for the sandwich. But she rarely eats a whole sandwich anymore, so I decided to just fold a slice in half and make a smaller crown. I used a jewel heart pick in the top.
Box of Hearts: In the light pink heart box (from Dollar Tree,) I have some mini chocolate chips and roasted salted peanuts from a Planter's Mix [I took one for the team and ate any non-peanuts that got fished out. A real hardship.] I chose to use only peanuts since she hadn't really eaten them when I had done a mix the other day, and she told me she didn't want any nuts in her lunch. When I added the mini chocolate chips, I told her she'd have to eat the nuts if she wanted the chips.
Yogurt of Hearts: We don't currently have Greek honey yogurt, since my husband needed plain Greek yogurt for some recipe, and Unka Seesee couldn't find the honey Greek yogurt, so got plain all-natural honey yogurt, which doesn't taste sweet or honey-like at all to me. But she's still happy as long as I drizzle honey on top, so it's all good. I used a small heart-shaped cutter as a guide, and made a heart out of pink sugar sprinkles.
Grapes of Hearts: I used the Diamonds and Clubs picks and made grape kebabs, plus some more grapes to fill out the cup.
Heart Cookie: My friend Jessica had given me her leftover Valentines cookies after her True Romance party a few Sundays ago, along with a bunch of other leftover snacks (they're on diets, so I was happy to be of help!) I found them in their baggie in the fridge while I was digging around looking for inspiration.
Ranch of Hearts: I used a plastic heart-shaped bento cup (from Daiso, I believe) to house the Ranch for her beans.
Green Beans of Hearts: We got these fresh green beans at an Asian Market last Sunday. They were so long, I had to snap them in half to get them to fit! I put a Spades pick in there, so I'd have all 4 represented.
Heartberries: We had 2 strawberries on their last legs, so I sliced off all the unsavory-looking bits and quartered them. I skewered some on the Hearts pick. Then I added two smaller, fresher, whole ones, since they looked kind of heart-like.

She was so excited about her yummy yogurt, with pink ("My favorite color is pink. Tually likes red, but I like pink") sprinkles, she dipped into the Ranch by accident.
"Oops! That's not my honey yogurt! That's Ranch pudding!"

After eating all the sugar sprinkles off the top, she added her chocolate chips and peanuts.

"Mommm! I need more peanuts and chocolate chips to put in my honey yogurt!"
"More Ranch pudding please!"

She ate all the skewered grapes. None of the strawberries. Most of the yogurt and peanuts. All of the chocolate chips. Most of the beans. The cookie. And didn't so much as jostle the sandwich. I'm glad I hadn't made the bigger crown! She got seconds of the Ranch dressing, and peanuts and chocolate chips.

    

WFLW - No Theme. Boooringggg!

For this week's What's For Lunch Wednesday bento, I didn't give myself a lot of time to prepare, and I hadn't had any brilliant theme ideas. So in the end I just tossed something together in one of my EasyLunch boxes.

Strawberries, mixed nuts w/chocolate chips, pretzel sticks, PB Honey sandwich,
Apples, Carrots, Cheese nibblets

Yes. I moved them to a square muffin liner, but those are the same strawberries that went uneaten in her Muffin Tin Meal and bento snack on Sunday.  They went uneaten (by her) again today. I finally put them out of their misery. And ate them.
I put some Planter's mixed nuts and some shelled pistachios in a heart box from the Dollar Tree (10/$1!!) And added some mini chocolate chips. She ate a few nuts, and left a few chips.
I cut the PB Honey sandwich into four fingers, which makes it easier for her to avoid the crust, without just catering to her. Plus they're fun! She ate one finger, plus nibbled on the others.
The apples are left over from a Happy Meal. I don't think she ate any.
The carrots are cut into flower shapes. I used a flimsy silicone rectangle cup from a set that was designed to fit perfectly together into a bento box. It was either from eBay or Daiso. I don't remember. I had made the carrot flowers for my Muffin Tin Meal on Sunday, but opted to use the strawberry flowers instead. She ate them all.
She ate most of the string cheese nibblets, most of the pretzels, and 6 Sour Patch Kids, which I bought after gym class as a special treat, since she did such a good job of listening to Miss Rae whenever I threatened reminded her. She also ate most of a mini bag of Cheetos, also bought after gym class, since I couldn't make change from the Honor System snacks table, so just added a little change on to my dollar to get another item.

Please note the Babylegs legwarmers on her arms.
I love her style!

We ate it in the car after gym, since we were observing at a potential preschool today, for next year. She again refused to allow photos, and the car behind me was getting cranky, once the light turned green.

So I got another passenger-side visor mirror image!

After the preschool tour (which went better than expected. And I liked the school more than I thought I would) she bounced around with the next door neighbor girl. These are not action shots. It was THAT static-y in there!

Ta-Dahhhh!
(That is my house in the background, FYI)

Getting It Out Of My Sistema!

Old Navy had a bunch of Sistema Lunch Cubes (BPA free!) for $5, and they were having a 30% off everything store-wide sale, making them only $3.50 each, plus my sister had an additional 10% off coupon, making them each only $3.15! So I got one in each color! [Turquoise, green and purple. I had purchased the pink one already before, using only a 20% off coupon.] Because the top folds back over the bottom of the box (after you snap the divider closed,) it has limited utility. Works great for something like a sandwich, or something non-drippy, like fresh veggies or something. Or, in this case, a small ice pack!

Pink butterfly water bottle
Ice pack in 'top' segment on left
Carrots and bean sprouts, strawberries, pretzel sticks, cheese

The water bottle also happens to be from Old Navy. They were on sale a few weeks ago for $3 (right before their 30-40% off store-wide sales) and I had a 20% off my purchase coupon. I got it and 2 others at a location by my sister's house. The pink Sistema was bought at a location north of my mom's but near where we went to lunch one day with my sister, and the other 3 were bought at a location by my mom's house. Old Navy much? Ironically, this was a snack to take to the mall to shop at yet another Old Navy store.

For those of you paying attention, the carrots and sprouts, strawberries, and mitten (and kettle)-shaped cheeses are repurposed from Sunday morning's Muffin Tin Meal. There are some string cheese nibblets under the Colby Jack cheese shapes, and more of the organic whole grain pretzels from Costco.

Preschool Snack Mom, MTM-Style!

I had entertained lofty designs for Little Z's preschool snack. I wanted to introduce new ways to serve food. Since I didn't think that skewers or food picks were the best idea for up-to-fourteen 2-to-3-year-olds, I thought it would be fun to use pretzel sticks to make kebabs. Bananas are soft enough, and I could probably use grape halves, maybe use a straw to punch through for the pretzel... Yeah... And fun muffin liners to separate the foods! So when I went to Daiso to pick out extra stuff to bulk up my giveaways, I got extra packs of the animals liners. I like them especially, since they have a plasticy coating, so won't get all soggy, but also because the design is on the inside, so it's easier for the kids to see. So kebabs for the fruit... Hmm... string cheese nibblets for the dairy, since, let's face it. After making a bajillion banana-grape pretzel kebabs, I won't care what shapes the cheese is in! Aaaaannnnd... Hmmm.. What for the chippy portion? Goldfish crackers? Naw. Veggie chips again? Hmmm... or maybe sweet potato chips... I decided to get inspired at the grocery store.
That is, until Sunday night. At bedtime. When I remembered that I had to get snack ready for the following day, like, RIGHT NOW! Naturally we had very little Colby Jack cheese, not enough string cheese, no grapes or bananas, only 1 apple and very little in the way of chips. Loads of breakfast cereal though! My husband didn't want to make a late-night run to the store made a great suggestion. We had a tub of organic whole grain jumbo pretzel sticks, and 3 pints of blueberries. Plus I could probably cobble together enough cheese if I cubed the Colby Jack and made the string cheese into nibblets... okay. Doable. So I packed the pretzels and muffin liners in a bag and put the cheese and blueberries together. And a BIG note reminding me to take them too.
I had the foresight to photograph the package of liners, to show you what they look like... but cleverly forgot to take pictures of the finished product. So you'll have to imagine.

photo credit
A paper boat like this

3 of these large pretzel sticks on the left

photo credit
A small handfull of blueberries...

...in a muffin liner in the center of the tray

photo credit
With 5 or 6 cubes of Colby Jack (I had enough!) on the right.
(Imagine that this is Colby Jack. I couldn't find a pic quickly)

Most of the snack was eaten by most of the kids, which is always a good sign. One boy asked for more cheese and pretzels, so the teacher gave him hers, since someone had eaten her blueberries. He was insistent that the new muffin cup ALSO needed blueberries, so when he turned around to ask, I split up his existing blueberries into his 2 cups while he wasn't looking. He turned back and was thrilled and amazed at the prompt service! Haha! His arm was jealously curved around both his trays the whole time! But he ate it all!

I sat at a different table from Z, to get her used to separation, and to not show favorites. But she hollered for me to come sit in the empty seat next to her. So I muttered something about how she just wanted to cadge my food, and she said "Mommy! I'm not gonna catch your food!" She stole my cheese cubes.

Tried-It-Tuesday - 2011, Week 5

This week I not only tried a new recipe, but I also made it up as I went along! Granted, it wasn't very complex. Refrigerated crescent roll dough, ham and shredded cheese. But I made it up as I went along, and they tasted yummy, so Scoooooore! for me! [I'm absolutely sure others have created and tried this recipe too. I'm not trying to take credit for it. Anybody even remotely cookery has probably made these or something similar at some point already.]

Ingredients:
Refrigerated Crescent Roll dough
Sliced ham or turkey. Thin-sliced works well. [I used ham]
Shredded cheese of choice. [I used cheddar]

Makes 8

Directions:
Step 1: Preheat oven as directed on dough package. Unroll and separate crescent rolls.

Step 2: Tear off ham in roughly unrolled-crescent-roll shaped bits. Can add bits here and there. Can fold some over to fit as well.

Step 3: Sprinkle on shredded cheese as desired. I like less cheese, so I didn't use very much.

Step 4: Roll up dough and fillings, starting with the wider end, rolling towards narrow end.

Step 5: Bake as directed. And completely forget to take any photos.

They were quite tasty, and a nice, light dinner. Quick and easy to make, and as we weren't very hungry, just the perfect amount of food for 2 adults and a toddler.

So what have you done this week? Link up or leave a comment on anything new you've done, eaten, cooked, made or tried this week!